Hier kommt mal eine Zusammenstellung, welches "Programm" was macht. "links to" ist eigentlich nur korrekt für *nix, Windows kann das so nicht in dieser einfacen einfachen Form:
    Program name     links to      comment (used option)
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    tex              tex           the original TeX, only dvi
    
    etex             pdftex        dvi mode
    eplain           pdftex        format eplain in dvi mode
    latex            pdftex        format latex in dvi mode
    pdftex           pdftex        pdf mode or dvi mode (-output-format dvi)
    pdflatex         pdftex        format latex in pdf or dvi mode 
                                   (-output-format dvi) 
    
    luatex           luatex        in pdf or dvi mode (-output-format dvi)
    lualatex         luatex        format latex in pdf or dvi mode 
                                   (-output-format dvi)
    dviluatex        luatex        dvi mode
    dvilualatex      luatex        format latex in dvi mode
    
    xetex            xetex         in pdf or xdv mode (-no-pdf)
    xelatex          xetex         format latex in pdf or xdv mode (-no-pdf)
    
    texexec          pdftex/xetex  cont-en format in pdf or dvi mode (--dvi)
    context          luatex        cont-en format in pdf mode   
    
    xmltex           pdftex        xml parser with dvi output
    pdfxmltex        pdftex        xml parser in pdf or dvi mode 
                                   (-output-format dvi)
    jadetex          pdftex        Jade/OpenJade in dvi mode
    pdfjadetex       pdftex        Jade/OpenJade in pdf or dvi mode 
                                   (-output-format dvi)
    
    mtex             pdftex        special format for polish in dvi mode          
    pdfmtex          pdftex        special format for polish in pdf or dvi mode 
                                   (-output-format dvi)
    utf8mex          pdftex        special format for polish in dvi mode
    
    cslatex          pdftex        special format for czech/slovak in dvi mode
    pdfcslatex       pdftex        special format for czech/slovak in pdf 
                                   or dvi mode (-output-format dvi)
    csplain          pdftex        special plain format for czech/slovak in dvi mode
    pdfcsplain       pdftex        special plain format for czech/slovak in pdf 
                                   or dvi mode (-output-format dvi)
    
    aleph            aleph         TeX with unicode for multiligual in dvi mode
    lamed            aleph         aleph with format latex in dvi mode 
    
    amstex           pdftex        special format in pdf or dvi mode 
                                   (-output-format dvi)
    
    texsis           pdftex        special format for physic papers in pdf 
                                   or dvi mode (-output-format dvi)